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On a lark, a woman named Gil tried on a jewel-inlaid grill at a pawn shop, but the “near priceless” piece of bling got stuck in her mouth.
Months later, on the verge of a critical job interview, Gil is the very definition of “too much drip.” And she’s sorry—so very regretful for her momentary lapse in judgement, which turned what seemed like a solid joke at the time into a never-ending bedazzled nightmare.
She pours out her heart, and her frustration, in a film called “F*ck, There’s a Grill on My Teeth.”
Now, could a robot do that?
Absolutely not, according to an ad campaign for the upcoming Brooklyn Film Festival that joins the current chorus of smack talk about artificial intelligence, much of it emanating from the creative community.
The work, from Havas New York, gives the human-versus-bot battle a cheeky spin with two pitch-perfect 60-second spots, “Gil’s Grills” and “Former Winner.”
In each ad, the human characters’ foibles are on prominent display, as are their emotions and motivations, illustrating the tagline, “Stories about life by those who have lived it.”
The goal of the spots is to show “the power of human creativity in a world that seems increasingly less creative,” Nick Lindo, associate creative director at the agency, told Adweek.
“AI is not new, but the threat creative people are feeling from AI is,” Lindo said. “And that feeling is only getting stronger. This campaign is about confronting that truth to reassure the creative world.”
The theme of this year’s festival is “Human Times,” reflecting “what the filmmakers are collectively trying to say,” according to Marco Ursino, executive director of the 26th incarnation of the event, where 155 films are premiering from June 2-11 in New York and online. “Their messages are, as expected, often rooted [in] societal challenges and changes.”
With AI in the zeitgeist, it was prime territory for the festival’s promotional materials, giving rise to some bold statements like: “Films made by humans can never be replaced by AI,” Ursino told Adweek. “Film is a human experience.”